Maddock Films’ Pooja Meri Jaan is about a love story gone wrong. Pooja Dogra (Mrunal Thakur) is held responsible for the suicide of Aniket Srivastava (Vikram Singh Chauhan) because after spurning his feelings of love for her, she has a showdown with him and also refuses to answer his countless phone calls. Aniket’s mother drags Pooja to court for abetment to suicide. Sana Mehfooz (Huma Qureshi) is Pooja’s advocate in court. Advocate Jatin Trivedi (Vijay Raaz) argues on behalf of Aniket’s mother. What happens in the court? Is Pooja pronounced guilty of abetting Aniket’s suicide? Or does the court hold Pooja not guilty?
Kanishka and Navjot Gulati have written a story which is thought-provoking but it lacks novelty as one often hears of suicides by boys spurned by girls and vice versa. The duo’s screenplay, with additional screenplay by Niren Bhatt, is appealing in parts. Even while Sana is defending Pooja in the court, the audience are with her line of thinking for the simple reason that they know, it’s not a crime to reject a marriage proposal. This makes the courtroom drama quite one-sided. Yet, the arguments in court are appealing in portions. Having said that, it must be added that the drama looks more suited for a television serial than a film. Kanishka and Navjot Gulati’s dialogues, and Niren Bhatt’s additional dialogues are quite nice.
Mrunal Thakur acts well as Pooja Dogra. Huma Qureshi is effective and restrained as advocate Sana Mehfooz. Vikram Singh Chauhan performs ably in the role of Aniket Srivastava. Vijay Raaz makes a wonderful mark as advocate Jatin Trivedi. Sunita Rajwar is pretty impressive as police inspector Sushila Chauhan. Vijay Vikram Singh shines as the judge. Priyanshu Jora is so-so as Pooja’s boyfriend, Vikram Malhotra. Suparna Marwah has her moments as Aniket’s mother, Alka Srivastava. Manuj Sharma makes his presence felt as Aniket’s friend, Mukesh Tiwari. Rajesh Jais is natural as Pooja’s father, Gulshan Dogra. Madhu Sachdeva is so-so as Pooja’s mother, Nandita Dogra. Rituraj Singh does justice to his role as Asad Mehfooz. Chahat Tewani (as Aniket’s sister, Nitya Srivastava), Shant Manu (as Jagdish Singh), Latin Ghai (as Rajan), Shikha Pandey and Sahil Bhasin (both as theatre group actors), Shubham Chawla (as advocate Jatin Trivedi’s assistant), Saarthak Gambhir (as Shreyansh Sharma), Shalini Singh and Gaurav Sharma (as Shreyansh Sharma’s parents), Pooja Singh (as the lady officer), Rohan Kumar Deka, Rohit Thakur, Chayanika Chaudhari, Vikas Thakur, Dheeraj Sharma, Aatmika Dixit (all six as social media influencers), Dipesh Kumar Rohilla (as the protestor), Aditya Dagar (as Sana Mehfooz’s assistant), Pradeep Kukreja (as the magistrate), Shamira Anna (as the lady warden), Shilpi Marwah (as Chandni Singhania), Vidushi Mehra (as Disha Tripathi), Pankhuri Gupta, Vasundhara and Enab Khizra (all three as Pooja’s classmates), Pranav Chadda (as Udayveer), Alyjah Sheikh (as Pooja’s ex-boyfriend), Basant Kumar (as Pooja’s ex-boyfriend), Nikhil Angrish (as Mayank Joshi), and the other actors provide the necessary support.
Navjot Gulati’s direction is alright. Given the subject, which doesn’t have much newness, his narration is quite nice. Vishal Mishra’s music comprises fair songs but there’s not a single hit number. Lyrics (by Vishal Mishra and Akshay Tripathi) are okay. Vijay A. Ganguly’s choreography is eye-pleasing. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is reasonably nice. Jishnu Bhattacharjee’s cinematography is good. Manohar Verma’s action and stunt scenes are fairly well-composed. Mayur Sharma’s production designing is alright. Sanyukta Kaza’s editing is suitably sharp.
On the whole, Pooja Meri Jaan makes for an average OTT watch. Had it released in cinemas, it would’ve found the going tough because it states the obvious.
Released on 2-10-’26 on Zee5.
